Marketing the Arts
A million-dollar arts marketing initiative backed by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Sara Lee Foundation is under new management. Since its inception early this year, the program–which includes a study of why some people don’t attend arts events, technical assistance to performing arts groups, and pilot marketing projects–had been run by Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Over the past several months, however, executives at the two foundations have shifted responsibility for its administration to the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, the local branch of a national organization known until recently as Business Volunteers for the Arts. The not-for-profit council recruits and trains business professionals to be unpaid management consultants to arts groups, many of which could not afford to hire such staff.
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The switch stemmed from a belief that the Arts & Business Council would be more sensitive to the needs of arts groups and therefore better equipped to handle the program than Kellogg. Professor Joanne Scheff, who helped organize the project at Kellogg, says, “Of course we could have done the job, but in hindsight we might have done things a little differently.” Last January Kellogg held a retreat for more than 50 local arts executives on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. Most of the weekend’s seminars concentrated on marketing and management styles that work for banks, insurance companies, and other large corporations. Since the seminars weren’t tailored to arts groups, most in attendance complained that they were achingly dull and useless.
Party Hits the Road
Party is bound for New York. Playwright-director David Dillon’s long-running comedy about a gathering of gay men who play a game that results in all of them eventually shedding their clothes is expected to open off Broadway in early spring. Dillon claims he’s had offers to mount Party in 26 cities, but was holding out for a New York production. “We’d like to find a space that seats around 200 and then move it to a larger space if the show takes off,” says Dillon, who plans to close the Chicago production January 1. The Chicago-based company Michael Leavitt and Fox Theatricals will produce. Leavitt and Fox have presented numerous Chicago productions of high-profile Broadway shows, including Laughter on the 23rd Floor, now playing at the Briar Street Theatre. Increasingly, they’ve also been involved with New York productions, including the current off-Broadway hit, Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women. “Michael [Leavitt] thinks Party has great crossover potential,” says Dillon. He says the Chicago production has drawn more and more nongay audiences over the course of its run. Dillon will direct the New York Party and will take two actors in the Chicago production, Ted Bales and Vince Gatton, with him. The remainder of the company will be cast in New York.
